Gregorio Robles, MSR International Award 2026

Editorial/Javier Martínez Tubío

The scientific community has recognized the career of Gregorio Robles, professor at Rey Juan Carlos University, with the MSR 2026 Foundational Contribution Award. This award, presented at the prestigious Mining Software Repositories (MSR) conference, is one of the highest honors in software engineering and recognizes pioneering and lasting contributions that have laid the foundations of this discipline.

The jury highlighted Professor Robles' contributions over the past 25 years to the study of free software projects and the use of software mining techniques in education. His work has not only been key to understanding global collaboration among free software developers, but also to improving programming instruction, placing URJC at the forefront of the discipline worldwide.

Upon hearing the news, Professor Robles emphasized the collective nature of scientific research: “This is like when individual awards are given in football. In my field, research is also a team effort. I would like to acknowledge the many people who have worked with me over all these years, to whom I am deeply grateful; this recognition truly belongs to all of them.”

This award highlights the research excellence and interdisciplinary collaboration capabilities of Rey Juan Carlos University, where Gregorio Robles works in two research groups: the Software Development Research Group (a leader in systems analysis), led by Professor González Barahona, and the Information Technology in Education Laboratory (focused on technological innovation applied to education), led by Professor Ángel Velázquez. Both groups include researchers from the Fuenlabrada School of Engineering (EIF) and the Higher Technical School of Computer Engineering (ETSII).